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The Spelling Bee returns, but in a virtual format during the pandemic

Last year the bee was cancelled for the first time since World War II. It now comes back in a mostly online format, with the in-person competition limited to a dozen finalists

Several online bees were held last summer by other organisations, but none of those events held the prestige of the ESPN-televised Scripps competition. Photo: iSTOCKPHOTO
Several online bees were held last summer by other organisations, but none of those events held the prestige of the ESPN-televised Scripps competition. Photo: iSTOCKPHOTO

The Scripps National Spelling Bee will return this year in a mostly virtual format, with the in-person competition limited to a dozen finalists who will gather on an ESPN campus at Walt Disney World in Florida, mentions an announcement by Scripps.

Last year's bee was canceled because of the covid-19 pandemic. This was the first time since World War II that the event had been called off. Organisers stated that they did not believe a large gathering at the bee's longtime venue — a convention centre outside Washington—would be possible this year for the competition's usual date around Memorial Day.

Instead of compressing the entire competition into a week—spellers routinely refer to Bee Week as a highlight of their young lives—the bee will be stretched over several weeks. The preliminary rounds will be held in mid-June, the semifinals on 27 June and the ESPN-televised finals on 8 July.

“We gave up on the idea of Bee Week early on because we knew we couldn't bring hundreds of people to one location safely,” Carolyn Micheli, the bee's interim executive director, told The Associated Press ahead of the announcement.

“We came up with what I think is a pretty exciting and creative way of structuring the competition across several weeks that will be fun for the kids, build excitement, and I think it's a great way to cope with a difficult situation,” she added.

The cancellation of last year's bee was a particularly cruel blow to eighth-graders who missed out on their final chance to compete after years of preparation. Top spellers routinely study obscure words, roots and language patterns for hours a day, sacrificing other activities and social life for a chance to become the national champion. Spellers are no longer eligible after they reach high school.

“A lot of spellers, including me, were really heartbroken when we couldn't get the chance to actually go to Scripps and experience that entire week,” said Harini Logan, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from San Antonio who hopes to contend this year.

Several online bees were held last summer by other organisations to give opportunities to those eighth-graders, but none of those events held the prestige of the ESPN-televised Scripps competition, with its $50,000 top prize, national media exposure and a chance to be part of the nearly 100 years of history.

“I have never really stopped or slowed down,” Harini said of her bee preparation. “I have tried to keep my pace of work and study as consistent as I can keep it throughout these uncertain times.”

Scripps surveyed spellers and their families about what they'd like to see in the 2021 bee, and the overwhelming majority said they just wanted assurances that the competition would be held in some form, said Corrie Loeffler, the bee's editorial director.

The bee will be limited to about 200 spellers—a 64% reduction from the 2019 event, which had 562 participants, and about half the number that had been planned for 2020. A wild-card programme, introduced in 2018, as an opportunity to bring in more spellers from highly competitive regions has been discontinued, meaning most spellers will have to use the traditional qualification route of winning regional bees.

Spellers, who live in areas that lack sponsored regional bees, can compete and earn a spot at nationals through online qualifying bees organised by the Cincinnati-based Scripps.

Another change is that there will be no written spelling and vocabulary test to narrow the field to 50 or so semifinalists. Virtual format notwithstanding, the bee will return to its roots as a purely oral spelling competition. That means Scripps will have to use more challenging words in the early rounds.

In the 2019-bee, the words used in the final rounds became a major issue. Scripps had to use the most difficult words on its list just to identify a group of prime-time finalists, and the bee ended in an eight-way tie because organisers didn't want the competition to be decided by physical endurance as it dragged late into the night. That result drew criticism from those who said Scripps relies too heavily on words that entertain the TV audience but don't present meaningful challenges to the spellers.

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